


Easy

by ryelined



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: First Kiss, Lance is a dork, M/M, skinny love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-19
Updated: 2017-07-19
Packaged: 2018-12-04 04:43:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,274
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11547714
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ryelined/pseuds/ryelined
Summary: Lance doesn't know how to kiss.





	Easy

“Would you rather eat a raw egg or drink a bottle of Tabasco sauce?”

“Neither.” 

Lance throws Keith a glare from his desk chair across the small space of his room. Despite that, he feels the corners of his lips turn up, and he doesn’t make a huge effort to turn them back down. “You have to pick one.” He can’t even get his voice to match his eyes.

The other Paladin lies easily on Lance’s bed, arms under his head and looking up at the ceiling. He turns his head with a half-hearted scowl and gives Lance a shrug. “I don’t like either.”

“So?” Lance groans. “You still have to pick one. It’s the game.” Lance is only a little surprised that Keith isn’t grasping the concept of this game. He thinks too hard about the simple things, and even though it’s always an easy target for Lance’s teasing, it’s also pretty adorable.

Equally adorably, Keith’s expression remains stubbornly unconvinced. “I wouldn’t do either.”

“That’s the point.”

“But they’re both disgusting.”

“ _Ugh_!” Lance pinches the bridge of his nose and sighs. “Let’s try something else. Would you rather have to fight a space monkey or a space cowboy?”

“Do those even exist?” Keith says, squinting. 

Lance rolls his eyes. “Does it matter? Just pick one, dude.” 

“Fine,” Keith groans. “Cowboy.”

“ _Space_ cowboy. And explain.”

“Space monkey’s too weird. I don’t want to think about it.”

“Fair enough,” Lance grins, satisfied. “Would you rather—”

“This is lame,” Keith yawns, sitting up with a stretch. Lance frowns, on the verge of letting some offended remark slip off his tongue, but instead he drops his feet down to the floor and pops a grin on his face.

“I mean…” he says, voice low—lower than usual, at least. “I know something else we can do…” Lance wiggles his eyebrows and puckers his lips, almost too suave to contain himself.

Keith makes sure his disgust is obvious. “Please never do that again,” he says, but Lance doesn’t miss the tiny grin he can’t keep down.

“You think I’m joking?” With a flourish, Lance swaps his seat for the space right next to Keith on the bed.

Keith raises an eyebrow, but his voice is tinged with a laugh. “You can’t seriously think _that_ face was going to work.”

Lance can’t help but smile at the ease that defines his relationship with Keith. Even just a month ago, Keith had barely been in his room and vice versa, and each occasion was always preceded by a knock and a specific reason. Now, Keith walking through the door and plopping down on his bed with nothing more than a simple greeting is the norm. It was almost too easy to waste hours just messing around.

“What face?” Lance puts a hand over his heart, faking offense. “That’s just my face, Keith!” As dramatically as possible, he sticks his face in front of Keith’s and pouts until the other boy breaks out in a laugh and pushes him away.

“You realize this is having the exact opposite effect of what you want,” Keith says, turning his head to hide his smile. “I’d rather kiss Hunk.”

“Hunk?! Don’t get me wrong—Hunk is a lovely guy—but when you could have this?” Lance wiggles his eyebrows again and gestures to himself. “No contest.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure,” Keith grins, smug and unapologetic, but Lance’s confidence won’t waver.

“Aw, come on!” He pauses his plea only for a moment to think. “Okay, here’s an easy one: would you rather kiss me or eat Coran’s cooking?”

“Cooking,” Keith says immediately. “Any day.”

Without missing a beat, Lance dodges the insult and slides an arm around Keith’s shoulders. “I think I see what the problem is here.” Keith gives him a look, one that would make any other person run for the hills if it weren’t for the small smirk that betrays him. “You’re _nervous_.”

“Huh?!” Keith blurts out, half-offended and half-laughing. “I am not.”

This is where his relationship with Keith stands. They both know there’s something going on here, but they joke and flirt around it. Not that Lance doesn’t like the flirting and cuddling and hand-holding, but the idea of something more serious than that keeps calling to him more and more. But, Lance doesn’t know how to make that happen. He doesn’t want to scare Keith off by moving too fast or saying something weird, so for now, he’ll just keep joking around it.

“You’re totally scared,” Lance laughs, arm still around Keith. “Petrified.”

“I am _not_ afraid of something dumb like that.”

“Prove it.” Lance puts on the most devious smirk he can muster up. 

“I will.”

Only then does Lance feel the heat on his cheeks. He hadn’t thought Keith would actually take him seriously, but then again, he also knows that Keith doesn’t back down from a challenge. And now this is happening. It’s exactly the kind of serious thing Lance has been wanting to happen for a long time, but he hadn’t known it would be this sudden. 

Keith stares back at him, not even an ounce of the Lance’s trepidation showing on his face. Like always, he’s calm, cool, and collected. Lance is not. He’s suddenly slammed by the realization that he has absolutely no idea how to do this. His thoughts are drowned out by the pounding in his ears, and his hand on Keith’s shoulder suddenly feels a lot more sticky than it did a minute ago. But this is how it’s supposed to go, Lance thinks, right? He’ll pull Keith close, whisper something suave, and boom, fireworks. 

Except Keith is not following the plan. With a stubborn spark still in his eyes, Lance watches his eyelids slide shut and feels Keith lean in towards him. Any coherent thinking is now gone, and Lance knows he only has a moment to figure out what he’s supposed to do. So, he goes with his instinct.

And his instincts let him down. He doesn’t know what it is, but his brain short-circuits and all the hours of romance movies he’s seen fail him, and he finds himself shoving his hand where his lips are supposed to go.

A moment passes and Lance sees his short, miserable life flash before his eyes. Keith opens his eyes to look down at the hand. The expression on his face is unreadable, but Lance has a pretty clear idea of what he’s thinking. 

“Wh-”

“Woah there!” _Woah there_. Lance will definitely be hating himself for the next ten years because of that. “S-so, um, this is happening?”

Keith pushes Lance’s hand away. “It _was_.”

“I-I just wanted to make sure we were on the same page.” Lance scratches the back of his neck and looks anywhere but Keith’s eyes. He’s not even sure what’s coming out of his mouth. “You know, the situation was kind of ambiguous, and it was unclear if you were serious or n—-Hey!” Lance is cut off by Keith rolling his eyes and getting up to storm out of the room. 

“Keith, wait!” Lance yells as he jumps up to catch the door before it slams. Keith doesn’t stop; even when Lance catches up, Keith ignores him completely. 

“Keith, come on!” Lance pleads, moving into Keith’s way to and trying to meet his eyes, but Keith only looks past Lance and steps around him.

“Keith, I’m an idiot! I know!” Lance fast-walks to keep up with him. “Why are you so mad?!”

Keith immediately stops, almost causing Lance to trip, and turns his head so Lance can’t see his face.

“If you don’t want to…” He pauses, voice strained. “If you don’t want to kiss me, then just say so.”

“What?!” Lance says, practically laughing from how ridiculous that is. However, Keith doesn’t take it that way. He turns to face Lance head-on, the intensity of his glare easily making up for what intimidation power he lacks in height.

“You know you can’t just joke about that right?” His voice starts to waver. “That people will take you seriously when you say stuff like that?”

“Huh?” Lance exclaims eloquently before the words sink in. “I wasn’t joking!” 

The heat from Keith’s glare doesn’t relent.

“I’m being serious!” Lance can’t help but make his plea come out like a whine. He’s used to Keith’s temper, but this is something different. Every other time Keith had been fired up about something it could just be laughed off, or, if it had actually been serious, it had never been directed specifically at him. This is… personal. And Lance needs to fix it.

But that’s not his strength. Lance is good at bad jokes (which are all good jokes, in his opinion) and smooth-talking and having fun. Lance is bad at anything that isn’t that, which includes sincere apologies.

“Keith, I-I—”

“Whatever, Lance.” Keith looks away and pushes past him. “Everything is always a joke to you.”

That sears white-hot through Lance. He knows he can come off as a jerk _sometimes_ , but Keith thinking that he would purposely humiliate him like that is a slap in the face. Actually, a slap in the face is something he can handle (barely); this is more like a punch that leaves him seeing black.

“Keith, listen,” Lance pleads, dashing forward to grab Keith’s wrist. Keith doesn’t turn around, but he stops and doesn’t push Lance away. “You’re right. I’m an idiot, and I mess everything up, and I’m a jerk.”

Keith turns his head halfway. “Go on.”

“And I really like you, and you’re too good for me.” Keith finally turns his head just enough so he can meet Lance’s eyes.

“And the reason I freaked out back there isn’t because I don’t want to kiss you, it’s because…” Lance pauses, the words caught in his throat and desperately begging him to keep it that way. But he has to do this.

“Because…” His voice drops to a mumble as he ignores the heat on his face and looks down at the floor. “I’veneverkissedanyone.”

Keith squints up at him. “Say that again?”

“I… have…” Lance swallows hard. He sees Keith raise an eyebrow out of the corner of his eye. “Never… kissed anyone.”

The corners of Keith’s mouth turn up. “You’re joking.”

“I wish.” 

“Oh my god.” Keith tries half-heartedly to hide a snicker. “You were nervous.”

“Don’t laugh!” Lance whines, hiding his blush with his hands. 

“I’m only laughing because it’s _you_.”

“Huh?” Lance peeks out from in between his fingers to look down at Keith. “What do you mean it’s me?”

That makes Keith go quiet. “I-I, uh…” A grin grows beneath Lance’s hands as he watches Keith squirm. “So, you like me, huh?”

Lance puts his hands on his hips, his confidence already springing back. “Yes, I like you. Don’t change the subject, Keith.”

Keith pouts up at him. “It’s _you_ , Lance. You’re funny and interesting a-and cute.”

“Aw, Keith,” Lance drawls, a toothy grin lighting up his face, “You think I’m cute?”

Keith answers with a deadpan. “Do you want me to kiss you or not?” Lance keeps his mouth closed and nods vigorously. He isn’t going to mess it up this time.

“Okay,” Keith says with a soft smile. He takes his hand away from Lance’s lips and pulls on his shirt collar, tugging the taller boy down to his level. 

Lance takes in the expression on Keith’s face. He’s sure of himself, the usual certainty that he always carries, but there’s more that Lance doesn’t see everyday. He’s excited; he’s happy, but not in same way that Lance is. It’s gentle, and it’s controlled. Lance thinks maybe this is why he’s never kissed anyone before. Maybe he had just been waiting for someone like this.

“Close your eyes,” Keith mumbles, only inches away from Lance’s face. Lance complies, and he’s only left with the sound of his heart pounding in his ears and the faint touch of Keith’s breath on his face.

And then Keith kisses him. There aren’t fireworks; there’s no music, but Keith lips are on his, and his heart stops for long enough to feel like he’s floating. Keith pulls him back down, and Lance opens his eyes to see the most genuine smile he’s ever gotten out of Keith. It makes Lance’s smile widen even more.

“Was it good enough for you?” Lance quips, stretching back up to his regular height. 

Keith is already back to rolling his eyes. “It was alright.”

“Then why’s your face so red?”

Keith loses his composure for only half a second, but it’s enough for Lance to be satisfied. However, Lance never has the upper hand for long.

“Isn’t it sad?” Keith sighs, shaking his head.

Lance frowns, trying to make out the aloofness on Keith’s face. “What’s sad?”

“That your first kiss and last kiss were the same.”

“ _Ouch_!” Lance moans, throwing his arms out and feigning hurt. “How ever will I recover from such a sick burn?”

Keith tries to hide his laugh with a glare, but it doesn’t completely work. “Okay, just for that, I’m gonna tell everyone you’ve never been kissed.”

“Very funny,” Lance says, but Keith is already turning to run down the hallway. “Good one, Keith!” Keith doesn’t stop, and Lance realizes that he isn’t joking. And he realizes that Keith is _a lot_ faster than him.

He just shoves his hands in his pockets and prepares himself for how much he’s going to be teased for the next _forever_ , probably. But, he supposes if this is the price he has to pay, then it’s worth it.

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading!! pls comment if you enjoyed this fic/loser nerd lance


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